Leith Dock

Read a great presentation on Slide Share about Social Media, loads of mind-blowing facts and figures, addressing the question of whether it makes sense from a financial viewpoint to get involved in social media.

As the presentation says, “WTF” - being involved in social media is going to be part of the future marketing and media mix, just like PR, customer service etc are. Plus there’s no point in getting too hung up about return on investment - after all, it’s pretty tough to prove the ROI of a PR campaign, but that doesn’t stop it being a really powerful tool

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

And have a laugh maybe just like I did about slide 2!

Edward Appleton

Leithal Thinking

I’ve not been into social media for more than a few months really, so i was fascinated and horrified to come across a really cool book called the Cluetrain Manifesto.

Fascinated, because it predicts how conversations through the web will revolutionise marketplaces. And challenge companies to change their way of hierarchal thinking. Just a few sentences give you a flavour:

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

What is scary about this - it was written roughly 10 years ago.

So - some people are so far ahead of the game it is untrue. Scary

And - markets are so slow to react. Scary

But when change does really happen, a tipping point or whatever is reached - then whooosssshhh.

So for anybody interested to get some more of the 95 theses, check out www.cluetrain.com

Edward - Senior Leithal Thinker

Fletch’s watch makes me think of http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/watches/1

Those crazy Japanese b¥gg€rs. Hard to read at the end of a summer party though.